


Attack!

by haganenoheichou



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: AU, Fictional Character!Erwin, M/M, Manga Artist!Levi, Sexual Situations, mindfucking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-16 22:19:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8119660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haganenoheichou/pseuds/haganenoheichou
Summary: Erwin Smith is the perfect man: handsome, successful, rich and charming. He has it all. And though sometimes people try to kill him for whatever reason, he survives because he is just that good. Too bad he's just the main character of a manga authored by successful yet morose mangaka Levi. Their worlds were never meant to cross. Until they did.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm addicted to the K-drama W and this is where this idea came from. I'd like to thank my friend Rosalyn for developing this with me. I'm also weak because I promised to myself I wouldn't write anything new until I finished An Omega's Life. But oh well.

“I told you I’ll get it to you by seven, fucking hell,” Levi growled into the phone before slamming it down without even bothering to hit the end call button. Frustrated beyond belief, he picked up the stylus and pressed it a bit too hard to the surface of his pristine new tablet he had just gotten from his employees because they were sadists. The one day in the year when every self-respecting person would not want to think about work and just celebrate themselves, they had gone and reminded him of the fact that his entire life so far had amounted to just one thing: _Attack_.

His entire life had a long time ago (twenty-two volumes and approximately seven years of his life) been reduced to a manga. A very successful manga, granted, but still, a manga. His entire living depended and revolved around drawing fictional characters and trying to come up with enough storylines to at least save up for retirement.

“Fuck you,” he said firmly as he looked at the fresh-faced protagonist whose hair he had been trying to perfect for the past hour. It was a close-up panel of him, the man, the most perfect man in the history of humanity, and possibly the most ridiculously overpowered main character in manga that didn’t involve supernatural elements or ending up stranded in a video game.

“Fuck you, Erwin Smith,” he groaned, rubbing his tired eyes before dropping the pen back onto the desk. He studied the fine features of his most prominent creation: the sharp cheekbones, the linear mouth, the eyes… And the one imperfection he had added in when working on the later chapters just out of resentment over how _perfect_ Erwin Smith seemed to be: his bushy eyebrows. Even that, though, could not take away from the man’s charm. He was oozing charisma, and according to Generic Secondary Female Character number three, he was Apollo himself, descended from Mount Olympus to make women horny and men jealous.

Too bad Generic Secondary Female Character number three wasn’t privy to what Levi knew as the author. Erwin Smith was gay as a picnic basket and nothing could ever change that. Besides the fact that the editor had been very explicit about the fact that a shounen manga could not have a gay main character. But Levi knew, he knew in his heart of hearts that despite the casual flirting to get what he wanted, despite the occasional drink with a female colleague, Erwin Smith was definitely, absolutely gay.

Because Levi had created him that way. The only thing about Erwin Smith that had been made in his image, he supposed.

He glanced out the window, trying not to look at the handsome face on the tablet screen.

Seven years ago, Levi had been an unemployed artist right out of college, with no practical experience besides his coursework (which had all been bullshit) and not a single yen to his name. His mother dead, his father absent and his uncle an abusive drunk, he hadn’t had a home or a family or even an office cubicle to shut himself in for the rest of his life. Two months into that life, he had realized that he would be better off feeding the fish and had nearly taken a nose-dive off a bridge (truly the most dramatic thing he had thought he’d been capable of at that point in time).

Right before his hand had left the railing, though, Erwin Smith had appeared. Popped into his head like someone had just turned the light on. He’d run back home and spent the whole night drawing the rudimentary sketch that would later become his first web comic. The first brick in the house he’d built for himself with his manga.

 _Attack_. It was a stupid idea, really, he thought, as he went back to texturing Erwin’s hair with almost loving care. A young man in college whose life was ruined when his father was killed by a mysterious murder. As the primary suspect, Erwin Smith spent a year behind bars before being released. He became a multi-billionaire with his amazing business prowess and a brain made for running an international company. Still, despite all that wealth, he continued to look for his father’s killer, throwing all of his earnings into the search.

It was cliché and unoriginal, but apparently cliché had been fresh enough for his first readers and somehow, he had ended up with chapters upon chapters of the stuff. His editor had even been hinting at a live-action movie adaptation (of which Levi was definitely _not_ a fan, considering how much they’d ruined all the other ones). Sometimes, Levi would still wake up in the morning dreading that this could all be a dream. That he would be homeless again if he opened his eyes. But no, he was not. He was pretty well-off, for a manga artist in a country full of manga artists.

He had a team. They were tolerable.

He had a house. It wasn’t crumbling down.

And he had Erwin Smith, the perfect boyfriend.

So what if Levi had fashioned the man after what he’d always considered his _type_? It just so happened that he had a predilection for blond, blue-eyed foreign men with accents and swagger.

He finished the panel with Erwin’s face in it and moved on to the next page. The stabbing.

He had researched various ways in which one’s life could be in peril and had developed an extensive database of creative options of how to almost die in order to keep the readership interested. This time it was going to be a poisoned blade. A competitor, Erwin’s long-standing rival and the most despicable character in manga for the last three consecutive years, according to some shoujo magazine poll, Nile Dok, was going to try to get Erwin Smith killed.

The last panel would be of Erwin’s wide eyes, Levi had already decided that much, but the stabbing just wasn’t working. The knife looked weird, the hooded figure looked like a fucking Dementor, and the setup was weak overall. He was losing his touch and he knew it because, well, Levi was not a serial killer. Neither was he a psychopath (although some of his colleagues and his editorial staff would argue the contrary). He was just a sad man in his thirties who earned his living torturing the most handsome man on paper.

Several hours later found Levi trying to stay awake as he put finishing touches to the attempted murder scene. A stroke here, a stroke there, and his eyelids were growing heavier as he leaned back in his chair. His gaze met Erwin’s and he sighed.

“I’m sorry for putting you through all this shit,” he told the image. “It’s not like I really enjoy it anymore. You should probably die sometime soon, then we can both get on with our… lives. Or whatever?”

He propped his head up with his hand, elbow on the table.

“I wonder what happens when the story ends,” he mumbled, half-asleep. “You know, after the end. Does it just end there, or do the characters… live on?”

A bitter laugh escaped him. “Whoa, I should probably start drinking or doing drugs instead of this crap. I’m talking to a fictional character.”

* * *

Erwin Smith had been having a fantastic day. His sponsors had _loved_ the presentation, lauding him for it and basically lining up to kiss his ass and throw their money at him. He himself was quite proud of the fact that he had even managed to extract some backing from Darius Zackley himself, the toughest of them all. Lately, despite the fact that once in a while there would be a really poorly executed attempt on his life here and there, he had been doing great.

Which was why getting stabbed in the back had not been part of the plan when he’d gone up to the rooftop of the hotel to get some fresh air.

The pain was tremendous – it felt as though his entire side had just exploded into a thousand pieces. Half-conscious, he felt himself fall to his knees, almost shattering his kneecaps under the weight of his own staggering body. The hazy figure of his attacker was running away from him and on instinct, Erwin reached forward, as if there was any way in hell he could catch the person.

He fell face-down onto the concrete floor of the helipad. His ears were ringing and his feet were strangely numb.

His phone was in his pocket but reaching for it meant more unimaginable pain.

“What the fuck?”

Bleary vision revealed another figure, rushing over to his side. It was a man, he was pretty sure of it, a small man too, and his hands were shaking.

“Help… me…” Erwin managed to get out, his voice a rasping nightmare.

“What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck,” the man kept repeating, panic evident in his voice. Nevertheless, even as he continued rambling on to himself, his fingers found purchase on Erwin’s side in an attempt to stop the blessing. “This has to be a fucking… dream or something…”

“Phone… ambu… lance,” Erwin rasped and the man’s hand increased its pressure on his wound.

“You’re not supposed to fucking die right now,” the man hissed, somehow very irritated by the fact that Erwin was the one bleeding out on top of a roof. It would have been weird if only Erwin had been more conscious at that moment.

There was a sudden noise and he faintly heard running footfalls approach them, yelling, panicking.

The last thing he saw was a pair of slate-grey eyes, wide and horrified.

Then everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, that was an unexpected amount of positive response, enough to inspire me for another chapter! Thank you to all of you wonderful humans!

 

“What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck…”

Nobody would have guessed that Levi was an actual published author given the fact that his vocabulary now seemingly consisted of just these three words. He kept repeating them over and over as he hit his forehead on his desk time and time again, trying to diffuse the clearly exhaustion-induced hallucination that had just happened.

Except his hands were stained with blood. Real, curdling blood belonging to Erwin Smith. A very unreal fictional character. He threw his chair back as he ran for the bathroom, opening the tap and scrubbing his fingers furiously.

The water ran red.

Levi slammed the bar of soap down onto the sink and looked up into the mirror to see himself stare back, eyes wide with terror.

No, this hadn’t just been a dream.

He had seen Erwin Smith. He had saved his life. From the very killer he had put on that rooftop.

He had touched Erwin Smith.

* * *

Erwin’s eyelids were lead as he finally managed to pull himself out of the sticky embrace of drug-induced sleep. He opened his eyes slowly, the harsh afternoon light scarring his retinas with its merciless pounding.

“You’re awake.”

He turned his head to see Mike, his best friend and right-hand man, perched on a stool that was clearly too small for his large figure. Arms crossed and lips tight, Mike appeared anxious – an unusual thing to see, considering the man had the emotional expression of a Rodin statue.

“I… water,” Erwin managed to get out. Mike nodded in understanding and reached for a pitcher, pouring Erwin a plastic cup of water before handing it over carefully. Erwin took it with feeble fingers and drank greedily.

“What happened?” He asked finally, wincing as he lay back down. His lower back hurt.

“You were stabbed,” Mike said simply. “They still don’t know who did it. The police arrived after the paramedics did, and there was nobody on the roof besides you.”

“There was someone,” Erwin said, frowning at the hazy memory of grey eyes and firm hands, pressing down onto his stab wound. “They… they saved my life.”

It was Mike’s turn to frown. “There was nobody. Not even on the security footage. According to them, you were alone there the whole time.”

“No, there was definitely someone,” Erwin insisted. “Two someones. The first stabbed me and the second… he saved my life.”

“He?”

“I’m pretty sure,” Erwin said, nodding. “I just remember bits and pieces of it.”

“Well, then we should bring him in, try to find him since he might be the only witness,” Mike concluded. Erwin saw the expression on his friend’s face and sighed. _A witness or a suspect, right?_

“Do you think you could come up with a description?”

Erwin sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly, his mind still a little hazy from all the morphine that had been pumped into his system. “I can try. But it’s all a blur, really.”

“Well, whoever that guy was, he did a good job of saving you,” Mike said, seemingly satisfied with keeping the two people separate for now. The paramedics said that he knew what he was doing, pressing down on the wound and all that. Must be at least some sort of nurse or whatever. Or an emergency responder.”

“Because there aren’t millions of those in the world. Everyone can get certified these days,” Erwin replied, leaning against the pillows. “Has there been much news coverage about this?”

“A ton,” Mike said gravely. “You’re being martyred beyond recognition.”

Erwin made a face.

“I guess that comes with being rich and famous.”

“And in the middle of a cold case,” Mike noted. “Some are speculating that it was your dad’s killer.”

Erwin’s mood darkened instantly.

“Why the hell would they think something like that?”

“Well, you know how the press loves dramatic stories,” Mike said with a shrug. “Don’t worry, Petra’s already handling your interview schedules. When you’re released, I mean. It might take some time, doctors say you should stay put for another two weeks or so.”

Erwin groaned.

“And no work,” Petra chimed as she flounced into the hospital room, fresh-faced and dressed to the nines as usual. Erwin managed a smile in her direction. Usually, her demeanor served to lift his spirits but now, he felt troubled, the mystery of what had happened to him weighing on his mind.

He didn’t labor under any illusions: there were plenty of people in the world who wanted him dead, considering his little vigilante enterprise. Nevertheless, for someone to go to such trouble and even manage to not get caught on tape… it was strange. And then there was the matter of the other person. The one who had held Erwin’s life in his hands.

“Sir?”

He looked up to see the door open. One of his security detail walked in, dragging behind him a squabbling, cursing ball of rage.

“Caught this one snooping outside your room, sir,” the guard said, lifting the person up and a little off the ground with the sheer strength of his arm. The person went weirdly limp, face down, an unruly mop of black hair covering their face. Erwin frowned and Mike’s hand went to his gun holster.

“Who are you?” Erwin asked, sitting up straighter and trying to maintain some authority in his voice as he attempted to get a glimpse of the man’s face. “Why are you spying on me? Who sent you?”

The other man refused to look at him, so the security guard forced his chin up with his other hand. Erwin’s eyes widened.

“Leave us,” he said, his own voice strangely distant even to his own ears. Mike and Petra stared at him.

“Erwin-,”

“Leave the two of us alone,” he repeated, eyes never leaving the man who was now sitting in a crumpled heap on the ground, face downcast and shaking finely. The guard gave him another unsure look and then finally bowed out of the room with Mike and Petra following him, their concerned eyes fixed on the figure on the floor.

“We’ll be right outside,” Mike informed Erwin, as if he didn’t already know that.

The door closed.

“Who are you?” Erwin asked, without any prelude. “I know you. You saved my life.”

The man shook his head, his arms around his own upper body in a weird imitation of a hug.

“Look at me.”

“Look. At. Me.”

The man shook his head again. Erwin banged his hand on the bedside table loudly, causing him to startle. Grey eyes met blue.

The man did not look like whatever Erwin had expected his mysterious savior to look like. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the man was pale, with his dark hair providing a stark contrast to the hue of his skin. He had blue bags under his eyes, clear signs of exhaustion, and his brows were knit together in a frown. Erwin’s eyes were drawn to the man’s mouth for a moment – he had surprisingly pretty lips, just a little pinker than the rest of his face, bottom lip full and trembling. He was small, Erwin noted, as the man finally stood up shakily.

“Who are you?” The blond asked. The man looked down again.

“I-I can’t tell you that,” he mumbled, barely audible over the beeping of all the machines that monitored Erwin’s health. The blond frowned.

“You can’t tell me?”

The man shook his head.

“Fine,” Erwin said with a sigh. “Then why did you save me?”

The man glanced at him with deliberation.

“You were bleeding,” he replied simply. “I was… there. So I saved you.”

His voice was surprisingly low, for a man of his stature. Pleasant baritone, albeit a little nasal. Unlike most Japanese people, he did not seem surprised that Erwin spoke such good Japanese. He replied smoothly, without slowing down or simplifying his speech for the sake of the blond, blue-eyed foreigner.

“Why were you there?” Erwin asked. “Access to the roof is restricted. I have never seen you around the hotel before, so why were you there?”

The man shook his head.

“I just… was. I don’t know how I ended up there,” he said quietly.

“You don’t just magically end up on a rooftop,” Erwin pointed out. The man let out a bitter little chuckle.

“Don’t you think I know that? I have no idea how it happened, okay?” He said, a little more forcefully than before. Erwin lifted an eyebrow.

“I suppose I am in your debt now,” he replied. “What do you want, money? Favors?”

The man’s eyes widened and he shook his head again, looking like a broken doll.

“I don’t want anything from you.”

“Everyone wants something from me. I still need you to testify to the police-,”

“The police?” The man asked, suddenly agitated. “They’re here?”

“I’m pretty sure Mike has them on speed dial,” Erwin said calmly, enjoying the control he had over the man at that moment.

“N-no, I can’t talk to the police,” the man stammered out.

“Why not? Are you an illegal immigrant or something?”

“I just can’t, okay?” The man snapped. He began to pace around the hospital room, his upper teeth buried in the soft flesh of his bottom lip. And Erwin had definitely _not_ been watching that intently.

“Look, you’re the only witness-,”

“I didn’t _see_ anything, okay?”

“Still, you might be able to provide some details for the investigation,” Erwin said. “Don’t you want to be a good citizen?”

Suddenly, the man was by his bedside, his hand gripping Erwin’s arm – the one without the IV in it.

“Let me go and we call it square,” he said.

“Pardon?” Erwin asked, frowning.

“I can’t talk to the police. I can’t… tell you why. So just… if you’re so thankful that I saved your life, just let me go. Just this once,” the man replied, his eyes searching Erwin’s face.

“Just this once? Does this mean that we’ll meet again?” Erwin asked calmly. The man’s mouth really was very nice.

“N-no… yes, I don’t know… Please, just… let me go!”

“Give me your word that you’ll explain everything to me next time and I will,” Erwin replied. The man frowned.

“I may run away and never come back.”

“I trust you,” Erwin said, startling himself even with the declaration. Somehow, though, it was true – he knew, he was genuinely sure that this man wouldn’t lie to him.

“Fine, fine, fine,” the man said, already halfway to the door.

“One thing,” Erwin called after him.

“What?”

Their eyes met again.

“Tell me your first name at least,” Erwin said. “Please.”

The man bit his lip again, fidgeting as he stood in front of the hospital bed, almost as if he were making the decision of a lifetime.

“Levi,” he said finally, before running out the door. Erwin heard the faint noises of a police radio nearby.

“Levi,” he repeated to himself, leaning back down against the pillows. A grin took over his mouth momentarily as he traced the name with his lips.

“Levi.”  


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are absolutely amazing and I love all of you!

“Levi?”

“Levi, are you there?!”

“Levi!”

Consciousness was unwilling as it slipped over his eyes, exposing him to the harsh light of day. For a moment, he was severely disoriented, trying to take in the sudden noise that came from… somewhere, he didn’t know where, and he didn’t want to find out where, really.

“Levi!”

The panicked voices were growing louder so he made himself sit up, his office swimming into focus. He had been lying on the floor in front of his desk. For a long time, judging from the pain in his back. What the fuck could have possessed him to do something so stupid, when he _knew_ that he had back problems – an occupational hazard of being a manga artist. He had never met any single one of his colleagues who didn’t have hernias and protrusions all along their spinal column.

_Fuck._

His memory barraged into his mind like a freight train.

He had seen Erwin Smith again. A stabbed Erwin Smith, in the hospital Levi knew was owned by Smith’s group, _Survey Corp_. How did he know that? Because he had fucking _written_ it that way. Erwin Smith was a billionaire because Levi had written him a billionaire. He had Mike for his right-hand man because Levi had put him there, creepy mustache and all. He had Petra because Levi had toyed with the idea of throwing Erwin into a brief romance with the secretary before scrapping it – because he hadn’t been able to stand the idea of some _woman_ in Erwin’s lap.

In Erwin’s fictional lap.

“Fuck,” he groaned loudly, slapping a hand over his face.

“I think he’s alive! I think I heard him! Levi!”

Levi gave the locked door a glare for good measure. He had told his team numerous times they were not supposed to bother him when he was in the process of working on the manga. And yet there they were, undoubtedly already calling the ambulance, the police, and the fire department to boot.

“Shut up, you freaks!” He growled as he got to his feet and unlocked the door, causing his motley crew of helpers to stumble into his office, piling up like a stack of dominos.

“Levi, thank God, we thought you were-,”

“What? Dead? Incapacitated? Decapitated?” Levi asked, his hands at his hips. “I told you three not to bother me.”

“But it’s been _hours_ and you haven’t even come out to pee!” Hanji argued, righting their glasses. Levi rolled his eyes. Sometimes he wondered whether he should have made them into a character in _Attack!_ Somehow, he had a feeling they would have an easier time fitting in with fictional characters.

Come to think of it, though, he really did need to pee.

“Sensei, should I bring you more tea?”

“Eren, I need to go before I drown in my own piss,” Levi said rudely, moving his most recent hire, Eren, aside with his elbow. He stumbled into the bathroom, closing the door with a bang.

“What’s eatin’ him?” He heard Oluo ask as he pushed down his sweatpants.

“I need to get out more,” he muttered under his breath.

Well, he had definitely gotten _out_. Out into a different world, apparently. The world where Erwin Smith existed and was flesh and blood and muscle and blue eyes and… fuck. He didn’t come into the bathroom just to get a boner over his own creation. With another muttered curse, Levi flushed and washed his hands, splashing some water into his face for good measure.

Thankfully the team had dispersed by the time he came out of the bathroom, clearly weary of Levi’s moods. He was quite famous for them, according to some shoujo magazine or other.

With a sigh, he sat back down at his desk and stared at his tablet as if he was expecting to see Erwin Smith look back at him through it and call him a pervert – a deserved title.

Instead of dwelling on his probable insanity, he turned towards his computer and turned it on.

“Sensei!”

“What, Eren?” He turned back to see the kid standing at the door, eyes wide.

“Did you finish the chapter already?” Eren asked, frowning. “It’s already on the server-,”

“That’s impossible and you know it. I just started,” Levi said brusquely.

“But I swear, it’s on the server!”

“Then Hanji must have mislabeled another folder or something,” Levi cut the boy off, irritated.

“I didn’t even go on the server today!” Hanji called from the main office. “Salty!”

“Fuck you!” Levi shot back, clicking on the server icon to get his files up. According to those who knew him, he had a slight _penchant_ for being organized. Well, that wasn’t what they actually said. The actual words were more like, _this neat freak is going to drive us nuts one day with his fucking nagging, who cares whether the folders are classified by date or name?_

_Chapter 120._

He stared at the folder, clicking it open to see it filled with files, all appropriately labeled by page.

“Go fuck around or something,” he told Eren distractedly as he opened the first page. Erwin in the hospital.

Okay, he had started the chapter like this – and that had been as far as he’d gotten, unless sleep-drawing was now a thing.

_In the last chapter, Erwin Smith was stabbed by a mystery maniac. Nevertheless, he survived due to an unexpected rescue by another mysterious person. Who might that be?_

He had not written that. Levi had definitely not been so lazy as to just skip out on the entire rescue scene – he had planned to do a flashback, frantically avoiding the idea that he had seen himself rescue Erwin Smith after the stabbing. That had been a bad nightmare induced by weeks of ongoing stress (Hanji’s words, not his).

He clicked the next page.

And nearly lost his shit.

“What the fuck…” Levi breathed, leaning in to get a closer look at the picture.

It was him. Him being dragged into the hospital room by a security guard, fighting tooth and nail against having to see Erwin. His heart racing, Levi clicked on the next page.

 _Who are you? Why are you spying on me? Who sent you?_ Said the speech bubble next to Erwin’s perfectly tousled head of hair. The next panel showed Levi’s face. His actual face.

 _Do I really look like that much of a kid?_ He wondered briefly. He had to shake himself out of his reverie – the next panel showed Erwin’s eyes widening.

It was there, it was all there.

Their entire interaction, from start to finish, up until the moment that Levi had left the room frantically, it was all there.

The door burst open.

“Levi! I never knew you were this vain,” Hanji drawled, walking into the room and leaning over his desk. “I know you like adding bits of this world to that one, references and stuff, but putting _yourself_ into the manga-,”

“I didn’t draw this,” Levi choked out.

“Pardon?”

“I didn’t draw this, Hanji,” he said, firmer now, as he looked up at the other mangaka. “I didn’t draw this.”

“Well, none of us did either, so what the hell is this, magic? Levi, you haven’t been getting enough sleep, maybe you just drew it and forgot-,”

“I didn’t draw it because I was _there_!” Levi burst out. Hanji stared at him for a moment.

“There where?” They finally asked.

“There there,” Levi replied shakily. Hanji looked at him in confusion, so he thrust his finger at the computer screen, pointing aggressively. “There.”

“Okay, that’s enough work for you,” Hanji said, laughing uneasily after a bout of awkward silence. Levi groaned. Of course they’d think him crazy. Hell, he even considered _himself_ insane. “Levi, promise me you’ll go sleep after you’re done with… _whatever_ this is. Is it venting? Are you venting? Or is it a symbol?”

Hanji departed, mumbling to themselves. Levi appreciated that, as he was currently going through a crisis.

He clicked on the page that came after… _his_ departure from Erwin’s hospital room.

* * *

“What’s the deal? Why did the kid come running out of here like a bat out of hell?” Mike asked as he walked back into the private room, eyes searching for Levi. Erwin looked up at him with a small smile.

“He had to leave.”

Mike sighed, sitting down in the chair next to Erwin’s bedside.

“So who is he?”

Erwin gave the man a wry smile.

“My savior.”

The other man looked at him incredulously.

“You’re telling me that shrimp saved your life? In the stabbing?”

“He’s not that short,” Erwin protested almost on instinct, suddenly very protective of the stranger. Not a stranger. Levi. He had a name and a face.

And Erwin had a gigantic crush.

Mike hummed thoughtfully.

“So… who is that positive giant?”

Erwin gave the man a small dopey smile which actually spurred Mike on to try and take his temperature.

“I have no idea,” the chairman of _Survey Corp_ finally said, still grinning. He turned his head to look out the window. The sky was grey, tucked into a thick blanket of clouds, and all Erwin saw was the slate grey of Levi’s eyes.

“You didn’t even ask for his number?” Mike asked softly. “How the hell are you going to find him, if you want to?”

Erwin shrugged, wincing when the motion caused his wound to tug painfully.

“He promised me there would be a next time. That he would explain everything to me next time,” he replied. Mike gave him a doubtful look.

“And you believed him? He could be a suspect.”

“Nonsense,” Erwin said, absolutely sure of his words even though his rational mind was freaking out like Petra at the shoe store. “He promised me.”

“And you believed him?”

Erwin glanced at Mike.

“I did. I think… I think I found it, Mike.”

“Found what?” The man asked, confused.

“The key to my life.”

“The _what_?”

“The key to my life, Mike.”

“Man, I think I should talk to the nurse, that morphine is going to your head-,”

“His name is Levi.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's kind of a filler, but I just wanted a little Team Levi interaction :P And more Levi heroics!

“So you’re saying that this is actually you in there?” Hanji asked skeptically, their arms folded across their chest as the entire team sat around Levi’s office, all wearing identical expressions of disbelief with a touch of _I-think-I-work-for-a-lunatic._ Levi sighed, turning yet another shot glass upside down, his half-finished bottle of vodka which he’d gotten from a Russian fan having finally come in handy.

“ _Sensei,_ I think you might be overworking yourself-,”

“Eren, I have told you a thousand times, I’m fine,” Levi said irritably, looking at the kid through the empty shot glass. Eren glanced at Hanji for help. Oluo blew a bubble out of his chewing gum, his eyes narrowed in a comical interpretation of Levi’s usual frown. Apparently the man liked to impersonate him when he wasn’t around, or so Levi had been told one by an overzealous Eren who had just tried to please.

“Except you’re telling us that you had a hospital date with your imaginary boyfriend,” Hanji said. Levi gave them a _look_.

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Oh, please, Levi, we all know why he’s so pretty,” Hanji said. Levi glanced around at Eren and Oluo who attempted their best to look suddenly fascinated by the stains on the window just to the right of Levi’s head.

“Okay, fine, so _what_ if I made him look like someone I’d fuck hands down?”

“You mean _pants_ down.”

Levi groaned. His forehead made contact with the office table, offering an unpleasant sound of something dull being hit by something even duller.

“I’m telling you, I was _there_. I could smell the chlorine and the hospital detergent and Erwin Smith, he-,”

“Let me guess, he smelled good too,” Eren said, growing bolder. Levi glanced at him menacingly.

“So what if he did?”

“N-nothing, sorry, sir,” Eren stammered out, deflating visibly. In terms of seniority, he was way down below on the pecking order, since Hanji was the senior member of the team and Oluo was more or less tolerable. Eren had been an aspiring manga artist when he’d met Levi and spilled his coffee all over his manuscript – back in the day when paper manuscripts had been carried around in huge manila folders.

“But he was _real_ , I’m telling you,” Levi said, looking at Hanji with desperation. He had to know that someone believed him – and if the craziest person in this damned country did, then maybe he wasn't that insane. “He had… dimensions.”

“Dimensions?” Hanji lifted an eyebrow.

“Like, he was real. He had skin and… eyelashes. And-,”

“Yaoi hands?”

“Fuck you,” Levi groaned again, this time banging his head on his desk purposefully. He hissed at the pain – and at the disappointment that his little act of self-sabotage had done nothing to clear his head. He was obviously either going wonky in the neural circuitry or Erwin Smith was real. The distance between the two options was too large.

“So you didn’t write any of what happened at the hospital?” Oluo asked.

Levi shook his head.

“I mean; I don’t know… I was there, I made things happen, does that mean that I wrote them?” He asked, feeling lost for the first time in years. Even writer’s block didn’t feel this bad. This was a whole different kind of cuckoo.

“Well, apparently the editors are loving it,” Hanji said, looking up from their smartphone. “They like the whole fourth-wall-break thing that you did, so… apparently they want you to continue on the same track.”

Levi shook his head.

“No way. I can’t go back in there. He’s _fictional_ , for gods’ sakes, and I _made_ him.”

“Yeah, that does sound creepy.”

“Not to mention the fact that I have no idea how to go back in there in the first place,” Levi said, glancing at the table. “I don’t know when it happens. I… I just end up wherever Erwin Smith is at that point in the comic and… I don’t know. It’s weird.”

“Maybe it’s the tablet?” Eren suggested. Levi opened his mouth to tell him that it was a stupid thing to say until-

“Wait, you might actually be right,” he said, frowning. “Both times I was at my desk and the tablet was on, so… but it’s on now and nothing is happening.”

“Maybe it’s because we’re in the room?”

“That’s stupid, how would the tablet know?” Oluo argued. Eren fumed at him.

“How would it know how to pull _sensei_ into a parallel universe?”

“I don’t know, maybe you should read the manual or something,” Oluo countered back. Eren stood up from his perch, ready to land punches.

“Levi?” Hanji’s voice broke the tension between the two assistants whose hands were already tangled in each other’s shirts. They looked at the desk. Levi’s face was pressed against the screen of the tablet.

“Levi?”

“Sensei!”

They hurried over to shake him on the shoulder. Then they yelled at him. Screamed.

He was out cold.

“D-d’you think he’s, you know, _there_?” Eren asked in a whisper. Oluo bared his teeth at the younger man, subsequently biting his tongue for all his vitriol.

“Less talking, more moving him onto the couch,” Hanji reminded the two of them. Groaning, the two assistants managed to transfer Levi onto the sofa in the corner of his office. Might as well make him comfortable, Hanji had said, even though he was completely unresponsive.

“And now what?” Eren asked as he watched his mentor lie unconscious, his cheek cushioned by his folded hands. He couldn’t resist the temptation, so he pulled out his phone and snapped a picture, Instagramming it with the caption, _Levi-sensei hard at work #datmangakalife._

“And now we wait for him to wake up,” Hanji replied, taking up position in Levi’s chair. If the man had known, he would have probably taken the chair with him into _Attack!_

* * *

“How does it feel to be almost out?” Petra asked cheerfully, sitting down by Erwin’s bedside in her usual bubbly fashion, her phone in her hands – Erwin was pretty sure he had never seen her without it. It was as if she had come out of the uterus with a monthly plan.

“Good,” the blond man said, sitting up a little against the pillows. He glanced at his empty tray. “I know I cannot complain because I’m in a private ward, but the food here leaves a lot to be desired. I will have to talk with the manager and ask him where all that money goes if not for the well-being of the patients.”

Petra rolled her eyes.

“You know the man’s flaky as hell. He’ll have a thousand excuses ready by the time you’re out of that hospital gown.”

“Any progress on finding Levi?” Erwin asked. Petra looked like she was repressing an urge to roll her eyes. Since the day the weird mysterious person who had apparently saved Erwin’s life had appeared at the hospital, Erwin’s mind seemed to have been completely occupied with thoughts of his savior. And it was becoming annoying, for her in particular, since she had been charged with the task of finding the guy.

Which had proven to be impossible.

“For all intents and purposes, this Levi guy doesn’t exist. I managed to sweet-talk one of my good friends at the international police service into checking him out and… there was nothing. Thousands upon thousands of Levi’s, three living in Japan, and none of them look like that guy. It’s like he’s a spy or an illegal immigrant or something,” she said with a heavy sigh.

“He spoke native Japanese,” Erwin replied. “And he didn’t look like he was on the run. Although he was kind of uncomfortable with me asking him stuff, he didn’t even want to tell me his name-,”

There was a knock on the door.

“Come in!” Erwin called. A nurse wheeled her trolley in, a broad smile on her face.

“I’m here to change up your medication a little,” she said, brandishing a syringe. Erwin made a face.

“Do I even need any more IV drips? I’m almost completely healthy,” he said with bravado. Petra poked him in the side, right next to where he had been stabbed, and he winced, giving her a resentful look.

“Almost being the key word,” the secretary said, sitting back down in the visitor’s chair. The nurse walked over to the IV stand.

“Stop right there!”

All eyes were on the door in which the tiny yet menacing figure stood. The nurse barely had time to react before he stalked over, ripping the syringe out of her hand.

“Do you know what you could have done?” He yelled at the woman whose eyes went wide with fear. Erwin’s security came running into the room, yet they couldn’t make a move as their employer was too busy staring at the intruder.

“This is potassium!” Levi continued, seemingly unaware of the rest of the people in the room. “This causes heart attacks, you stupid-,”

The nurse pushed past him, running for the door.

“Stop her!” Erwin finally reacted, and the men ran out into the corridor after the nurse.

The three of them were left alone, with Levi still clutching the syringe. Petra’s eyes narrowed.

“What the hell was that?” She asked, her hands flying to her hips as she made an attempt to tower over Levi. The man seemed weirdly confused by the fact that he was here, as he glanced at the syringe, then at Erwin, then at Petra, and then sank down onto the floor comically.

“I… Uh, sorry, I didn’t want her to mess up your meds,” he mumbled, not looking at either of them. Erwin lifted an eyebrow, still kind of shaky after the shock.

“How did you know?” He asked, leaning forward curiously. He squinted at the syringe in Levi’s hand.

“It _is_ potassium,” he said, leaning back against the pillows. Suddenly, Levi felt like he was in the principal’s office, so he dropped the syringe onto the floor, averting his eyes.

“I just… I saw her. Yeah. I saw her coming in and-,”

“How did you know she was going to try to inject me with that specific syringe?” Erwin asked, politely cool. Levi bit his lip.

“I can’t tell you,” he said.

“Then tell me how you got in here past my security,” Erwin shot back. Levi gave him a begging look.

“I can’t tell you,” he repeated. Petra’s eyes became slits.

“Then tell _me_ why you don’t exist in any database,” she says. “If Levi really is your real name.”

“Why do you want to know?” He asked, feeling like he wanted to disappear.

“Well, for one, you’re the only lead the police may have in terms of Erwin’s stabbing. And he claims you saved his life, so… you know, it’s just common courtesy to introduce yourself,” Petra pressed on. Levi shook his head.

“I can’t tell you any of it.”

“Are you a spy?”

“What?”

Blue eyes met grey.

“Are you a spy?” Erwin repeated calmly. Levi let out an incredulous chuckle.

“Do I really seem that cool?”

“it’s always the nerdy ones,” Erwin replied. “And the quiet quirky ones.”

Levi shook his head, finally standing. “Look, I’ll-,”

“You told me you’d explain everything to me next time,” Erwin pressed on.

“I didn’t think next time would happen this soon,” Levi blurted out.

“I didn’t think we had to plan an appointment,” Erwin replied. Levi gave him another beseeching look.

“Please, just this one, could you let me go?”

“I’ve heard that before. How do I know you won’t just disappear on me?” Erwin asked. “I have no way of contacting you.”

“You don’t need one,” Levi said, fidgeting.

“I want to have one, though,” Erwin said. He reached towards his bedside table and picked up his phone. “Here. I have three other ones. You can have this one, so I can call you on this once I’m out.”

Levi took the phone with numb fingers, taking care not to touch Erwin as he did.

“Why are you so curious about me?” He asked.

“Why’d you have to save my life?”

Levi took the phone, pocketing it.

“I’ll call you when I’m out and then you’ll tell me everything.”

Levi glanced at Petra and then back at Erwin.

“Promise you won’t call the police?”

“I promise.”

“Then… I’ll go, okay?”

“Okay,” Erwin replied calmly. Petra gaped at him.

“You’re not just letting him go, are you?”

Erwin shrugged. Levi ran for the door.

“Thank you,” he said in a rush, bowing to Erwin just as he saw his hands start to disappear. The door slammed behind him and he was back on his couch, the weight of Erwin’s phone in his pocket the most discomforting thing in the world.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long! I'm such a loser!

Levi came to on his office couch groggily. At least now he knew what the fuck had happened. Sort of. He still had no idea _how_ it had happened, but at least now he was pretty sure about what he’d done and where he’d gone. He reached down to feel his jeans pockets.

No phone. Huh. Interesting. His clothes from this world were taken to _Attack!_ But the phone from there had not been brought here. About a split-second into that clinical assessment of what, who, where and why, Levi realized that he should have probably freaked out more about ending up in his own manga yet again. Except… it wasn’t that freaky, was it?

Sure, he’d just met (the incredibly hot) Erwin Smith and saved his life like some heroic secondary love not-really-interest. Sure, he’d even met Petra whom, upon closer inspection, he’d written as slightly bitchier than he should have. She’d nearly handed him over to the fictional police, for gods’ sakes. Who does that to a random stranger who saves their boss’s life?

He sat up carefully, feeling his ears ring. He must have collapsed onto the tablet because his cheekbone hurt with a fresh bruise.

The door opened and Hanji waltzed in with a tray of tea.

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead!” They sang, setting the tray onto Levi’s coffee table. The man only looked at them, deciding whether it would be a good idea to tell them-,

“So tell me all about it. What happened? Where did you go? Was Erwin there? Was he naked? Oh my god, he was totally naked, wasn’t-,”

“He was in a hospital gown,” Levi interrupted, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Recovering from, you know, the previous attempt on his life.”

“What do you mean, _previous_?”

“Remember that plot bunny we had, with a nurse getting hired to kill him?” Levi asked, reaching for his teacup. Hanji nodded slowly. It had been an idea they’d tossed around but never actually gotten to write because, well, there had been other more exciting options on how to squeeze a near-death experience out of their protagonist and make the fans’ hearts go _dokidoki_.

“Well, it happened. Sort of. I mean, I stopped it,” Levi said, frowning. He took a sip and cursed, having burnt his tongue. Hanji snorted.

“Can’t imagine you stopping a murder.”

“Fuck you. I’m plenty heroic. Plus, the moment I saw her with that cart, looking all sneaky-beaky like, I knew there was something fishy going on. So I- wait. You mean that’s not in the manga?”

Hanji blinked. “How should I know? It’s all saved on your computer, isn’t it?”

At that moment, Levi’s phone rang. His actual phone. Not the potentially hand-drawn one Erwin had given him. Hanji reached for it, taking it off Levi’s desk, and handing it to the manga artist.

“Hello?”

_“Levi, that was amazing!”_

“What do you mean?”

_“The new chapter! You’re pumping them out faster than before, so I’m thinking, maybe we’ll publish it together with whatever you come up next?”_

Levi exhaled, looking at Hanji with wide eyes.

“Uh, could you tell me exactly what I came up with? I, uh… had a lot of ideas and worked really late, so I’m a bit… out of it.”

His editor laughed genially.

_“Well, you’ve been doing fantastic work because this is gold! The author saving his own creation? The syringe! Petra seeing him as a rival? That’s fabulous shit, Levi-san!”_

“Wait, what-,”

_“I won’t distract you anymore, I just wanted to tell you that this is the best stuff you’ve done in months! You’ve kind of been slacking off with all those filler chapters but hell, this is inspired shit! Can’t wait to see more!”_

The call was over just like that and Levi was left sitting with his phone in his hands and confusion written all over his face.

“Apparently Petra sees me as a rival now,” was all he managed to say. Hanji started at him for a moment and then succumbed to hysterical chortling. Levi frowned at them – empathy was clearly not one of the reasons he’d hired them.

“Well, you did kind of take over the whole heroic savior plot line we had going for her. So far it’s been her who got Erwin out of all those sticky situations,” Hanji reasoned. Levi groaned.

“Great. Not only am I gay for my character, now there’s a possibility my character is gay for me?”

Hanji stood, patting him on the shoulder.

“The life of an artist is a dark and convoluted thing.”

The next morning, Levi was organizing his office as a way to distract himself from all the thoughts that had prevented him from sleeping properly the previous night when he felt the familiar sensation of his head going wonky and his knees buckling. With a curse thrown at the tablet, he managed to take another step towards the pillows he had strategically placed next to his desk.

Better safe than sorry.

A barrage of noise assaulted him a second later and he found himself sitting on a bench. Under a bus stop sign. Right in front of a hospital. Erwin’s hospital.

What a coincidence. Almost as if this were fiction.

He felt the weight of Erwin’s phone in his pocket. He hadn’t changed his clothes, simply because he had been too exhausted last night and too lazy this morning.

The phone rang obnoxiously loudly and he nearly lost his shit. He reached into the pocket and pulled out the incredibly fancy smartphone-tablet hybrid that was the perfect gadget for a yaoi-handed freak like Erwin but not so much for someone of Levi’s size.

“Hello?”

_“Levi?”_

Oh shit. It was Erwin. Well, of course it was Erwin. Nobody else knew that Levi had this phone. Fuck, he had to stay calm before he completely went crazy – but he couldn’t help his heart hammering in his chest at the sound of Erwin’s voice.

Could he be any more of a uke?

“Yes, it’s me,” he said, biting his lip. “Who is this?”

 _“Very funny,”_ Erwin replied, clearly smiling. Strange, now that Levi thought about it, his voice was exactly how Levi had pictured it to be: deep, smooth, velvety. Kind of like chocolate. But, you know, produced by vocal chords.

God, he needed help.

_“Hey, I was wondering… can I see you? I’m out of the hospital-,”_

“Already?” Levi blurted out. “But it’s only been one-,”

_“One month, yeah, but what can I say, I’m a speedy recoverer. Is that… even an expression? I don’t know.”_

_One month?_ Levi wanted to scream. _It’s been one day, you lunatic!_

In this universe, a whole month had passed. Where had _he_ been during this one month? Chilling at the bus stop? Unconscious? Or maybe…

Maybe he just hadn’t been there. Because Erwin’s recovery was a transition from one plot point to another. It wasn’t necessary to the progression of the story to show the whole month, was it?

That meant that in this universe, Levi wouldn’t have existed until he was needed for the plot again.

_Well, that’s just great._

“Um, okay,” he said, still reeling from his discovery.

_“Where are you? I’m just about to leave the hospital, I’m driving, so I can pick you up.”_

“Should you be driving? I mean, after your injury. One month isn’t that long,” Levi said. And then felt an insane desire to slap himself across the face. He heard Erwin chuckle on the other end.

_“Are you worried for me? That makes me happy.”_

_Shut up, you gorgeous bastard._

“Not worried. Just… don’t want you dropping dead on me,” Levi said shortly, channeling his best _tsundere_.

Erwin laughed again.

_“So, can I pick you up somewhere?”_

“Actually…” Levi bit his lip, pausing to look at the hospital across the road. “I’m at a bus stop right next to where you are. Weird, right?”

_“Perhaps it’s destiny.”_

_Oh, shut the fuck up. Twat. I can’t believe I wrote you to be this cheesy._

“Uh, right. So, I’m here. On the right side, if you’re facing the building.”

 _“Got it,”_ Erwin said. Levi heard an engine revv up. _“I’ll be there in two. Let me just figure out how the parking system here works.”_

“Right. Um, see you.”

Levi put the phone down and stared at the passing cars with unseeing eyes. Was this supposed to happen? Was he messing too much with the story?

But then again, how could he mess with the story if he created it in the first place? So did he have a right to get into Erwin’s car and… participate in his life? He didn’t even exist in this world, technically, at least, not on paper. He could get arrested any time and labeled as a criminal or an illegal migrant.

His thoughts were interrupted as a bright yellow Porsche stopped in front of him, effectively blocking the bus stop. The top of the car slid back, revealing a very cocky, very smiley Erwin Smith.

“Your chariot awaits.”

Levi wanted to stab him with his tablet pen so badly.

He walked towards the car and got into the passenger seat, shaking finely. Erwin quirked an eyebrow.

“Weird coincidence, huh?”

“Yes,” Levi said, his voice quiet. “Weird.”

“Coffee? I haven’t gotten any since the whole, well, murder thing. The first one,” Erwin said, still smiling. Why did he smile so much? Did Levi make him smile so much? He’d have to correct that in the next few chapters. The man was a fucking Cheshire Cat.

“Coffee sounds good.”

Was fictional coffee better than normal coffee? Levi wondered as they sped down the road.

“So, how have you been?”

 _Apparently I haven’t,_ Levi thought to himself.

“Um, you know, here and there.”

“Avoiding the police?” Erwin asked lightly. Levi frowned at him and the man shrugged.

“You make yourself very hard to find.”

“You’ve been looking for me?” Levi asked, surprised.

“Well… I tried to get Petra to search for you, but she doesn’t seem to be a fan of the idea, so she was very half-hearted about it,” Erwin said. He chuckled. “I think she might be jealous of you.”

“Of me?” Levi asked. There went the _dokidoki_.

“Someone’s catching up to her mission of saving my life as many times as possible,” Erwin said with a laugh. “Sorry. It’s an inside joke that we have.”

Right. Levi wasn’t supposed to know that.

They pulled up not five minutes later in front of a café Levi had definitely not drawn. Ever. Interesting. The universe completed itself?

He didn’t get the answer to that question.

But he did receive an answer to another one.

Fictional coffee tasted much better.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: http://haganenoheichou.tumblr.com.


End file.
